No doubt, but he is a top class player who deserves to be competing at the top, for titles, in Europe etc. He's never going to achieve that consistently at Palace.
Imagine a midfield three of him, Can, and a top defensive midfielder for us. Would be best in the league.
Not sure about "best in the league" in those circumstances (City & Arsenal have pretty good M/Fs, as do Leicester), but it would significantly improve us.
I just thought in the summer that we lacked a special midfielder. We've got some hard-working experienced players in there, lots of energy, a moderate amount of attacking quality but no one who really creates or scores enough, or who can control a game like Alonso used to.
I know it's a cliche but over the years we've gone from the likes of Gerrard, Hamann, Alonso & Masch to some fairly average players by comparison, even though it's one of the most important areas of the team.
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